Saw a recent blurb in Popular Science or Mechanics, I forget which,

which said that one of the UAV's that the military is

looking at will use a rotatry engine. IIRC the UAV is

rather small, around 100 lbs or less.

A company in Maryland, AAI, makes a UAV for the military (the Pioneer,

maybe?)

that uses an air cooled gasoline rotary engine
based on the Norton motorcycle rotary. I think they get about 100 or
150 hours between overhauls. I don't recall who the engine
supplier is, but much of the hardware is identical to the
Midwest Rotary, Midwest may even make some of the parts for this
application.

Jon Lauter
Rotary Power Marine Corporation
www.rotarypowermarine.com

Jon,
What sort of HP in those engines?
George (down under)

Aviation Week September 22 2003 page 57 had an article on this UAV.
No HP mentioned. Problems are: cooling during climb in hot climates
and a noisy engine. Sound familiar? :)

Paul Lamar
 
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